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OfiiversilY and %(L\\m\ Extension- 



PSYCHOLOGY (Course A). 



1889. 



GEORGE T. LADD, 

Vale University. 



Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New York. 



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Copyright, 

1889, 

By GEORGE T. LADD. 

[All rights reserved.] 



Course I. Descriptive Psychology.* 



INTRODUCTORY. 

I. Definition : What is Psychology ? The science may best be 
defined with reference to its primary problem^ which is the 
description and explanation of the states of human con- 
sciousness, as such. 

[Consider the objections to the customary definition — viz.: "Psychology is 
the science of the human soul (or mind)" ; and compare Ladd's "Elements of 
Physiological Psychology," p. if, and Ward's Article, p. 37.] 



* This course should be studied topically, following closely the scheme here 
presented. It is recommended, however, that Sully's "Outlines of Psychology" 
(D. Appleton & Co., New York : 1884) should be used as a standard of reading 
and reference, and that each class, or circle, should have for consultation one or 
more copies of the following works : Bain, "The Senses and the Intellect," and 
" The Emotions and the Will" ; Porter, " Elements of Intellectual Science" ; 
Dewey, "Psychology"; Janes, "Human Psychology"; Hill, "Elements of 
Psychology"; Ladd, "Elements of Physiological Psychology"; and Ward, Article 
on "Psychology," Encycl. Brit., ninth edition. \N. B. — Much use should be 
made of mutual instruction by asking questions of each other and comparing 
results. Be in no haste to devise set rules for the art of teaching, but strive to 
attain the greatest amount of mental awakening and growth of power to observe, 
reflectively, your own mental action and that of others. Remember that in Psychol- 
ogy the relation of subjects is such that no very clear and complete knowledge of those 
earliest treated can be obtained until some knowledge of those whose treatment comes 
later has been reached.} 



4 UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. 

2. Method: How shall we study Psychology? The true method 

includes the use of all possible means for acquiring com- 
prehensive, verifiable, and systematized knowledge of the 
subject : hence the necessity (besides introspection through 
which the problems of psychology are presented to us) of 
observation (of the phenomena of infant life, savage life, of 
abnormal states of consciousness, social phenomena, etc.), 
guided, if possible, by experiment^ enriched by reflective 
reading (of history, novels, drama, etc., from the psychological 
point of view), and by study of the opinions of experts. 
Comparative study of the sentient life of the lower animals 
is also valuable. 

[Criticise the view which regards the immediate observation of one's own 
mental states (introspection or self- consciousness) as the only method of psychol- 
ogy. Fix the value and relations of each of the foregoing methods,] 

3. Aim : What should we try to accomplish ? The analysis of all 

the complex states of consciousness into their simplest 
elements, and the discovery of their laws of combination 
and sequence ; but, especially, the knowledge of the genesis, 
order, and laws in development of mental life. 

[From the points of view now gained, consider the most elementary relations 
of psychology to education.] 



DESCRIPTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 



PART FIRST. 

MOST GENERAL FORMS OF MENTAL LIFE. 

I. Consciousness and Self-consciousness. The former, as 

being co-extensive with the existence of any mental fact 
whatever (the opposite of the " unconsciousness " of the most 
profound slumber or of a swoon) cannot be d'^fined. The 
special fact upon which the latter depends is this, that all 
the states of consciousness are referable, and many of them 
are actually referred, to a ''self." (" I " have the states and 
know them as mine,) 
[If self-consciousness be defined as " the (immediate) knowledge which the 
mind has of its own acts and states," how, and how much can it be used in the 
study of psychology ? Consider, also, the place, limits, and benefits of introspec- 
tion in education.] 

II. Attention : Its nature and elementary laws. In what respect, 

if any, does attention differ from the varying amount of 
psychical activity as directed toward any particular object 
of consciousness ? 
[Sully: chap. iv. ; and Ward's Art., p. 4if.] 
[Consider the training of attention as necessary to education.] 

III. Knowledge, Feeling, Will : — the so-called " Faculties " of 

the mind, and the differences of the phenomena on which 
the distinction of faculties depends. Are there distinguishable 
and irreducible modes of the behavior of mind (or classes 
of the states of consciousness) ; and, if so, what and how 
many are these modes ? How is their existence consistent 
with the unity of mind ? 

[Consider the relation of these so-called "faculties," and their interdependence 
in education.] 



UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. 



PART SECOND. 

ELEMENTS OF MENTAL LIFE. 

I. Sensation : Psychological science recognizes an elementary 
and necessary, but theoretical, factor of our sense-experience, 
called the " simple " sensation. (In organized, self-conscious 
experience, there are no simple or isolated sensations.) 

1. The Nature of Sensation: its necessary pre- 
conditions in physical stimulus (light- and sound waves, heat, 
etc.) and physiological action ("nerve-commotion" in the 
end-organs — such as the eye, ear, skin, etc., — in the nerve- 
tracts, and central organs, of the nervous system). 

[N. B. — The sensation itself is always and purely a psychical state (or event) 
due to the characteristic reaction of the mind, when ceitain physiological processes 
take place as conditions.] 

2. Quality (what sort ?) of Sensation. 

[Consider its great variety under each one of the principal senses ; e. g. shades 
of color, pitch of tones, kinds of smells, etc.] 

3. Quantity (how much .?) of Sensation. On what do 
the varying degrees of quantity depend, and what is the 
relation between them and the changes in the amount of the 
physical stimulus ? 

[Weber's law : — See Sully, p. ii4f, and Ladd, p. 365f.] 



DESCRIPTIVE PSYCHOLOGY, 



4. Local Coloring of Sensation. 

[On this subject compare with Sully the statement in Lotze's "Outlines of 
Psychology," p. 5if, on the existence and nature of "local signs."] 

5. The Kinds of Senses. Besides the ^z;<f i-^f/zj^.f cus- 
tomarily distinguished, may we not enumerate, sixth, the 
muscular sense (on the "muscular feelings," see Bain, vol. I., 
pp. 74-100) ; seventh, the sense of temperature ; and eighth, 
vague general sense {sensus communis) ? 

II. Ideation. The simplest mental state corresponding to this term 
would be one marked by the occurrence of an image repre- 
sentative of a single sensation previously experienced. But 
here, as in the case of the sensation itself, we find in organized 
experience no perfectly simple or isolated representative 
images ; indeed, the very term " representation " implies a 
reference to a somewhat complex and developed mental life. 

1. Conditions of Ideation : {a) physical, as shown in 
the phenomena of " after-images," etc., and implied in the 
laws of habit ; {b) mental, particularly attention, interest, etc. 

[Consider the analogies of physical registration and reproduction of impres- 
sions outside of the body.] 

2. Nature of the Representative Image (or 

"idea"): — This determined as respects its strength, clearness, 
completeness (or fullness of content), and relations of simi- 
larity or dissimilarity to the original from which it is derived. 
[In what sense can such an image be said to be like or unlike a sensation ?] 



UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. 



3. Kinds of Representative Images (or "ideas"): 
(a) The memory image, or " idea " representative of some 
previous individual impression. (^) The image of phantasy, 
or the " idea " severed from all connections of time and place 
pertaining to the original impressions. 

III. Feeling. 

[Consider whether, strictly speaking, feeling, as such, can be described or 
treated scientifically, since description and science are forms of cognition only.] 

1. Nature of Feeling: its pure subjectivity, incom- 
municable character, and its relation to knowledge. 

[Must we know in order to feel, or is not feeling, the rather, as primitive a 
form of psychical activity as either sensation or ideation ?] 

2. The Tone of all Feeling, — is ^\\h^x pleasure ox pain. 
What tone characterizes each particular feeling depends upon 
several considerations, such as the condition of the organism 
when stimulated, the strength of the stimulus, habit, fixation 
or wandering of attention, the relation to each other of the 
different elements in the "field of consciousness," etc. 

[Are there strictly neutral or indifferent feelings ?] 

3. Kinds of Feeling : 

(a) Sensuous feelings, or those which accompany the 

action of the organs of sense and fuse with the different 

resulting sensations, {b) Intellectual feelings, or those which 

accompany the processes of ideation and thought. 

[Consider whether the feelings, as such, can be classified, or are indefinite in 

number and variety, so that all classification has regard to the kinds of bodily 

and mental activities in conjunction with which feeling arises, and with which 

it " fuses," as it were, rather than to the feeling, as such.] 



DESCRIPTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 9 

Feelings may also be either (a) simple or {l>) composite 

(or mixed). 

[Reserve the consideration of the higher composite and intellectual feelings 
and their development, until Part Third, Section IV., is reached.] 

IV. Desire. Under this head fall the half-blind (but only M//- 

blind) appetites, instincts, and impulses, as well as the more 

clearly conscious mental states of attraction and repulsion 

toward an object. 

[Consider whether desire can be regarded — in the customary way — as a mere 
form of feeling. Is it not rather a new form of psychical activity, dependent, 
indeed, upon a peculiar combination of an experience of pleasurable and painful 
feeling with an activity of ideation ?] 

V. Volition. 

[JV. B — For the present all consideration of questions of freedom of choice 
(or of the will) should be refused, and attention concentrated upon the psycho- 
logical origin and nature of those peculiar states of consciousness which depend 
upon the mental representation of an idea of action accompanied by the desire to 
realize the idea, and which are characterized by that special kind of spontaneity 
which causes them to be called "acts of will."] 

Volition, or "acts of will," need to be distinguished, with 
especial care, from desires and impulses, the most nearly allied 
forms of psychical activity. 

I. Conditions of Volition : (a) Physical, — a sensory- 
motor mechanism capable of reflex and so-called " auto- 
matic " (or spontaneous) action, stimulation of this mechan- 
ism, etc.; {b) mental. 

[Here consider the relations of feeling, desire, ideation, and, especially, 
attention, to the forthputting of volition (" act of will ").] 



10 UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. 

2. Kinds of Volition. These are determined by the 

relation in which the act of will stands to the previous states 

of consciousness, or to the elements of the same mental state 

of which it is a part, (a) Forced volitions, or undeliberated 

and " uni-motived " acts of will. 

[Consider whether this involves any contradiction of terms: <?. ^., an act of 
attention may be held to involve an act of will, but it is certainly not always "vol- 
untary" in the sense of involving choice.] 

(d) Voluntary " acts of will " (or choices). 

[Under this topic of ' ' volition " falls the consideration of the dependence of 
the bodily movements — sensory -motor, ideo-motor, etc. — upon the states of 
consciousness.] 

VI. Primary Intellection (Discrimination and Judgment). £>is' 
crimination is the necessary condition of all knowledge, 
whether of self or of things, and of all growth of mental life. 
Without it there could be no self-recognition or distinc- 
tion of '' kinds of mental states," whether of sensation^ 
ideation, or feeling. 

I. Nature of Judgment : — this involves a relating 
activity of mind, which may be regarded as a secondary 
and higher form of reaction in it, stimulated by its own 
states of sensation and ideation, {a) Relation of judgment 
to sensation and ideation (dependence on these activities)., 
(^) Relation of judgment to belief and doubt, in their most 
primitive forms, {c) Relation of the two factors (as indicated 
by subject and predicate) in every judgment (<?. g. affirmative 
or negative). 



DESCRIPTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. II 

2. Qualities of Judgment; — such as clearness, accu- 
racy, promptness, etc. 

3. Kinds of Judgment : (a) Psychological or primary 
judgment (the discrimination of mental states and positing — 
as it were — in consciousness of the result). (l>) Judgment 
of reality (the affirmation or negation of a quality or relation 
as belonging to a real being), (c) Logical judgment (the 
relating, affirmatively or negatively, of general notions). 

[N. B. — The two latter kinds of judgment involve a complex development of 
the mental powers, — cognition of " Things" as objectively existing and formation 
of general notions by processes of thought ; but their essence is to be found in the 
same discerning and relating activity of the mind.] . 



PART THIRD. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL LIFE. 

I. The Acquisition of Perceptions (or so-called " Presentations 

of Sense"). 

[Consider that to perceive " Things " is a mental achievement which belongs, 
in its most essential respects, to our earliest life ; and the processes of which, therefore, 
cannot be recalled or pictured in forms of our present organized experience. And 
" Things" themselves are not existences ready-made, independently of the activity 
of mind, and then, in some mysterious way, carried over into and impressed upon 
the mind. The Mind, according to its own laws, constructs the perceptions of 
sense.] 

I. Conditions of Perception : These are to be found 

in the character and relations of the different classes of 



12 UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. 

sensations and images of sensations, — especially those of 
sight and touch ; and in the activity of mind in — so to speak 
— dealing with these sensations and images. Judgment^ alsOy 
is involved in all activity of the mind in perception. 

2. Stages of Perception: {a) Discrimination and com- 
bination ("mental synthesis") of sensations, {b) Localization 
of sensations, (c) Association, with present sensations, of 
images of previous sensations, whether of the same or of 
different senses. {d) Perception of our own body and of 
" Things " as distinguished from each other. {e) So-called 
*' acquired perceptions " (strictly speaking, all perceptions are 
acquired), by means of secondary signs and more complex 
processes of reasoning. 

[Here refer to Part Second, I., 4, and reconsider the theory of "local signs."] 
[See Ladd, p. 443f.J 

3. Special Channels of Perception : {a) Tactual 
perception, {h) Visual perception. 

[Consider, in particular, the construction of the space-qualities and space- 
relations of things, by the activity of these two senses.] 

4. Illusions of Perception. 

[These should be studied chiefly for the light they throw upon the nature 
of the perceptive process itself. Remember that, in every case of so-called 
"errors of sense," the mind acts with precisely the same powers and under the 
same laws as those which characterize its so-called "■ normal" action.] 

5. Theories of Perception. 

[See Porter, p. 189!, and Janes, p. I26f.] 



DESCRIPTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 1 3 

II. The Formation of Memory and Imagination (or the 
Growth of Representative Knowledge). 



1. Conditions of Representative Knowledge: 

(a) The limitations of consciousness : these narrow the field 
of ideation, and prevent the distribution of attention — so to 
speak — over an indefinite number of objects, {d) The unity 
of consciousness : this compels all the ideas, when recurring 
in consciousness, to observe certain relations of fusion, or of 
recognized similarity, or recognized difference. 

2. Laws of the Reproduction of Ideas: (a) Fusion 
of the ideas. The different simpler ideas (or, rather, states of 
ideation), on combining to produce the more complex, act 
and react on each other, according to their mutual relations, 
whether of agreement, or inhibition, etc. (d) Immediate or 
direct reproduction of ideas. Different previous states of 
ideation tend — with more or less strength as dependent on 
temperament, mood, accompaniment of feeling, degree of 
attention originally given to them, etc. — to recur spon- 
taneously, (r) Mediate or indirect reproduction of ideas 
(the "Association of ideas"). Existing states of ideation are 
explicable by immediately previous states (the previous states 
being said to "induce," or "suggest" the existing states); 
and all existing states of ideation tend to produce certain 
following states rather than others (the latter being dependent 
on the mental " tendencies " expressed in the former). 



14 UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. 

The different forms of " Association " are customarily- 
declared to be : (i) association by contiguity ; (2) association 
by similarity ; (3) association by contrast. 

[Consider that "contiguity," as here used, means »z^?z/d:/ contiguity (co-exist- 
ence or close sequence of the elementary or more complex phases of mental life); 
and, then, examine what is the reason for this alleged power of contiguity, and 
whether similarity and contrast, apart from contiguity, have other than an indirect 
influence.] 

3. Kinds of Representative Knowledge : 

(A) Memory, — considered as involving (i) recognition ; 

and (2) the mental representation of time ; (3) the formation 

of memory. 

[Note carefully the difference between having a succession of ideas and 
having, even the most elementary, idea of succession.] 

{B) Imagination, — either as (i) mainly reproductive in 
the lower forms of activity (e. g., reveries, dreaming, etc.); 
or, as (2) mainly constructive (in the discovery of scientific 
and philosophical truth, the invention of practical con- 
trivances, and in art). 
[Consider the law^s of reproductive and constructive ideation as related to the 
cultivation of memory and imagination, and to education generally.] 

III. Thought (proper) and the Attainment of Scientific 
Knowledge. By that secondary and higher reaction of the 
Mind on the elements of experience (combined and associated 
sensations and representative images), which we call " Think- 
ing," new combinations are formed and are regarded as 
necessary (independent of sense-impressions and of the laws 
of the association of ideas) and universal. 



DESCRIPTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 1 5 

1. Nature of Thought. All thought {^xo^QxXy so-called) 
is the mental affirmation or negation of a relation between 
the particular and the universal. 

[Compare Part Second, VI., i and 3.] 

2. Stages and Products of Thought. (A) Concepts 
(or general notions): (i) their nature, as related to the images 
of memory and phantasy ; (2) their formation, as dependent 
on primary judgment, abstraction, generalization, naming, 
etc. (compare Part Second, VI.); (3) their extent and content ; 
(4) their perfection and imperfection. 

(B) Judgments (of the secondary sort, as involving the 
formation and relating of general notions): (i) their elements, 
as indicated by the words "subject," "predicate," "copula"; 
(2) their kinds (analytic and synthetic ; judgments of extent 
and of content). 

(C) Reasonings — as involving the relating, the concate- 
nating or linking-together, of judgments, (i) The kinds of 
reasoning (inductive and deductive ; the forms of the 
syllogism, etc.). (2) Degrees of conviction produced by 
reasoning (certainty, probability, etc.). 

3. The Construction of Science. 

[In what respects does "scientific knowledge differ from ordinary knowledge ; 
and are these points of difference, psychologically considered, essential ?] 

(a) The experimental and other tests of science. (^) Sci- 
entific systemization. {c) The induction of laws. 



l6 UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL EXTENSION. 

4. Relations of Thought and Language. 

5. Universal and Necessary Forms of Thought. 

[Here consider the origin and nature of such ideas as those of Being, Reality^ 
and, especially, Cause; ol'^o Final Purpose. 1 

[Consider all the foregoing facts and laws as related to the training of the 
judgment and reasoning powers ; also, the relation of culture in thought to 
education.] 

IV. The Formation of the Emotions and Sentiments. 

Both emotions and sentiments involve a somewhat complexly 
organized experience of perception, ideation, and thought, — 
the sentiments, however, more clearly than the emotions. 

{A) The Emotions : these develop earlier than the senti- 
ments, and are characterized by a greater strength of the 
attack — so to speak — which they make upon the ideating 
activities ; and by the greater prominence of the bodily basis 
upon which they rest (characterized by physical agitation). 

(-5) The Sentiments : (a) Intellectual ; (^) Esthetic ; 
(c) Ethical. 

[Consult, especially, the excellent remarks of Sully, pp. 480-568. Consider 
the possibility and means of cultivating the emotions and sentiments, and the 
relations of such culture to general education.] 



V. The Development of Will (Choice, Conduct, Character). 

[Consider again the distinction between such spontaneous motor activity as is 
accompanied by the feeling of effort and by the direction of attention, and 
deliberate choice. See Part Second, V., i and 2.] 



DESCRIPTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 1 7 



1. Factors Necessary to Choice, (a) Mental repre- 
sentation of two or more ends to be gained and of the means 
necessary to their attainment, (d) Excitement of the sensi- 
bility in the form of desire, (c) Deliberation, or conflict of 
so-called " motives " regulated by the direction of attention. 
(^) Decision, — the appropriation to self of one end, and its 
system of means, to the exclusion of others {choice, peculiarly 
so designated), [e) Fiat of will (accompanied by the "feeling 
of effort," and resulting, under physical and psychical laws, 
in starting the train of means deemed necessary to the 
attainment of the chosen end). 

[These factors may, of course, be so compressed, or nearly fused, as it were, 
that their accomplishment shall include only a brief time.] 

2. Conditions of the Development of Will. 

(a) Control of the bodily organism and of the train of ideas, 
involving the voluntary fixation of attention, {b) Formation 
of complex ideas and sentiments (especially the ethical). 
(c) Formation of habits of choice. 

3. Conduct and the Formation of Character. 

{A) Conduct, — which, as distinguished from mere physical 
and psychical activity, involves the development of complex 
and organized experience (sentiments, ideas, thought, and 
"choices" as distinguished from the mere forthputting of 
volitions). 



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UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL 



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{B) Character, [a) Definition of character. (<^) Elements 
of character, (c) Dependence of character on ideals, {d) Re- 
lation of the law of habit to character. 
[Consider now the laws and means of the training of Will, and the relation 
of all education to the forming of character.] 

VI. History and General Laws of Mental Development. 

1. Meaning of Mental Development (the life of the 
soul advancing to the realization of its idea). 

2. Principles of Mental Development, (a) Com- 
bination of internal and external influences, and reaction of a 
psychical nature upon environment, as involved in all devel- 
opment, {b) Interdependence of body and mind, and of all 
the so-called "faculties." {/) Order in the organization of 
experience, {d) Variety of individuals and mental unity of 
the race. 

3. Stages of Mental Development. 

[Here read, if possible, Prayer's "The Mind of the Child" (Part I., by 
D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1888), and consider its bearing upon the whole 
problem of the order, method, and amount of study and teaching required for the 
best education of the young.] 

4. The Final Purpose of Mental Development. 

How shall this be defined ? 




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